Phend & Helmrich win at 2nd annual Desert Classic

The 2nd Annual Cactus Classic hosted by Hobby Action was a spectacular show, selling out 300 entries in just 38 minutes after opening registration. This year’s track build was built by track master Levi Jackson, who constructed a simple, yet racey layout that made for some great main event action. The layout was on the more traditional side that featured elevation in almost every corner and also a very difficult triple in the middle of the track that was the “X factor”. Line it up right and you were rewarded with traction and faster lap times than your competitors. Get it wrong and you would spin out or wreck out. The high-speed layout was a true test of intensity and precision that required an ironic mixture of patience and shear speed. While the Modified Buggy and Mod Truck classes were won Spencer Rivkin, Ty Tessmann and Dustin Evans, it was Jake Thayer with impressive wins in the Stock Buggy classes. TLR’s Dakotah Phend showed great speed in the Mod SCT class TQ’ing three of four rounds and took the win in the 5-minute A-main. With a few small mistakes at the beginning of the race, Team Associated’s Ryan Cavalieri, fell back and wasn’t able to close the gap, but finished 2nd overall. After five minutes, Team Associated’s Kyle Layton put in a great run and was only 4.5 seconds back from Cavalieri to take the last spot on the podium.

Alexis Helmrich put in a great drive and finished 1st in the Novice class from starting 4th on the grid. By the 2nd lap, Alexis moved into 1st and started to put down some quick, consistent laps and claimed a terrific win. Bill Hunter also moved up the grid from his 3rd place qualifying position and finished 2nd while Mike Malmgren took 3rd.

Source: JConcepts [jconcepts.net]